"Grrrrrrrrrrl!"
As Seto's roar echoed through the surroundings, a tornado materialized.
It was a fairly large one, roughly seven meters tall, and it began swirling up the dense white fog in the vicinity, drawing it into itself.
"Multi Slash!"
Rei unleashed Multi Slash toward that tornado—toward the tornado that had just sucked in numerous Smog Panthers in their fog state.
Previously, he had fired Multi Slash at the fog spread across the area, and even then the Smog Panthers had taken damage and been forced out of their fog state.
That had been while the fog was dispersed across the surroundings. What would happen if they took a Multi Slash while concentrated like this?
Thud, thud, thud, thud. Massive amounts of severed Smog Panther bodies spilled out from the fog.
"Whoa, this is... I know I'm the one who did it, but... brutal."
The words slipped from Rei's mouth.
What hung in the air was the thick stench of blood.
Normally, the tornado Seto created might have swallowed up that blood scent as well, but unfortunately, the tornado had been completely obliterated by Rei's Multi Slash—along with the fog-turned Smog Panthers that had been sucked inside.
"Well, even so... there's no doubt the fog has thinned considerably."
Rei surveyed the area as he spoke.
Because Multi Slash had been used where the fog was concentrated, the Smog Panthers had been reduced to chunks of flesh—well, that was slightly exaggerated, but they had certainly been turned into lumps of meat. There was no telling exactly how many he had killed.
Still, he had unquestionably taken down a considerable number... and as a result, the white fog drifting through the area had already thinned to the point where it could no longer be called dense.
This was without a doubt a welcome development for Rei. Attacks like this would kill that many more of the Smog Panthers composing the surrounding fog, thinning it further.
(It's only natural to think they were able to fight so advantageously against me and Seto because a High-ranking Species or Rare Species was leading the Normal Species. If so, then reducing the enemy's combat power like this works in our favor.)
Making that judgment, Rei drove Death Scythe's pommel into the ground.
"Wind Hand!"
The Skill activated, and from Death Scythe's pommel, Wind Hand extended—an invisible, tentacle-like appendage.
Within Wind Hand, the part that could concretely exert physical influence was strictly the tip. Everywhere else, it could not affect anything even upon contact.
In that sense, it was less versatile than Seto's Tornado... but the fact that only the tip interacted with objects also made it easier to control precisely than something that affected everything it touched.
Above all, the key advantage here was that Wind Hand moved exactly as Rei intended.
Rei generated Wind Hand and used its power to gather the fog drifting around them.
Since only the tip could wrap up the fog, the areas Wind Hand passed through were visibly cleared—as though someone had run a vacuum cleaner over one section of a dusty floor. That was how Rei would have described it.
After gathering the fog, he brought the tip of Wind Hand back to himself and swung Death Scythe.
That single strike severed every Smog Panther collected within Wind Hand, killing them all at once.
Normally, physical attacks against Smog Panthers in their fog state would deal no damage whatsoever. But Death Scythe was no ordinary weapon—it was a Magic Item. And not some commonplace one, but a powerful Magic Item of an entirely different caliber.
The damage from that strike carried more than enough power to inflict fatal wounds on the Smog Panthers in their fog state.
The Smog Panthers, various body parts severed, dropped to the ground. Rei glanced at them briefly, then immediately turned his attention back to the surroundings.
Among the Smog Panthers struck by that last attack, some were still alive. However, even those individuals had taken heavy damage and showed no signs of being able to counterattack.
Having confirmed that, Rei scanned the area to kill as many Smog Panthers as possible...
"That one seemed to do quite a number on them."
Confirming that the fog had grown even thinner than before, Rei smiled.
The fog drifting through the surroundings now was completely different from what it had been when they were suddenly attacked during their break. That meant the power of the individual commanding these Smog Panthers had weakened.
(Which means the problem is how to draw that individual out of the fog.)
If these were ordinary Smog Panthers, Seto's King's Intimidation would instantly force them out of their fog state. But perhaps because the current Smog Panthers were being led by the commanding individual, even normal ones didn't revert from fog state when hit by King's Intimidation.
In that case, how were they supposed to defeat the commanding individual?
(The reliable approach is to keep killing Smog Panthers and whittling down their numbers like this. The problem is that as their numbers decrease, the commanding individual might realize it's at a disadvantage and flee. ...I want to take it down here if at all possible.)
In terms of Rei's goal—collecting Smog Panther magic stones—this incident had already yielded more than enough results. They had killed a considerable number of the Smog Panthers being led by this commanding individual.
If anything, Rei was also surprised that this many Smog Panthers, creatures said to live solitarily, had been in this forest at all.
"Seto, don't let the commanding individual escape!"
"Grrrl!"
At Rei's words, Seto purred as if to say "obviously."
For Seto's part, it had no intention of letting an opponent that had given it this much trouble get away. Above all, the commanding individual was likely a High-ranking Species or Rare Species, and in that sense, it absolutely wanted that magic stone.
Whether Seto would use it or Death Scythe would was unknown at this point. Unknown, but either way it would make them stronger—so Seto had no intention of missing that opportunity.
"Grrrrrrrrrl!"
With a roar, Seto unleashed Thunder Breath from its mouth.
At Level 1, it was the lowest-level Skill in Seto's arsenal, but low level didn't mean useless.
The Thunder Breath, fired in a somewhat diffused pattern, also proved effective against the Smog Panthers in fog state, sending them dropping to the ground.
Unlike with King's Intimidation, the materialized Smog Panthers only felt a slight numbness and could still move somewhat.
...But they were undeniably monsters of a lower rank than Seto to begin with.
They'd be troublesome even fighting Seto at full strength; numb and sluggish, they had no chance of winning.
The Smog Panthers materialized by Thunder Breath fell one after another to Seto's attacks.
Why had Seto used Thunder Breath instead of King's Intimidation? Rei, who had been watching, understood immediately.
Seto's King's Intimidation worked fine against normal individual Smog Panthers. But the individual commanding them was unaffected even when King's Intimidation was used. At the very least, it had done nothing earlier.
Thunder Breath was different. If it hit the commanding individual in its fog state, it couldn't be negated like King's Intimidation—it would take effect.
If that was the case, Seto had deliberately chosen this type of attack to target the commanding individual.
"Then I can't just leave it all to Seto. ...Multi Slash!"
The Multi Slash unleashed once again cleaved through the surrounding fog and trees. In the next moment, numerous Smog Panthers materialized from the fog and collapsed onto the ground.
"It's going to be a problem if the commanding individual doesn't come out soon."
Saying that, Rei moved to the tree where Nielson was hiding.
He half-expected the fog to attack him again while he moved, but fortunately, no attack came. From the Smog Panthers' perspective, Rei thought it wouldn't be strange for them to attack in this situation. Or perhaps the fact that their numbers were being steadily whittled down by Rei and Seto was having an effect.
"Nielson, hey, Nielson. Can you hear me?"
"Eh? What? You told me not to come out during the fight because it's dangerous. Is it okay now?"
"For now, the enemy doesn't seem to be making any move to attack, so don't worry. Even if they do, I'll protect you to some extent. ...If the defensive golem had been finished, I wouldn't have to worry about this at all."
If only the golem he'd commissioned from Roger was complete. Rei couldn't help but think so, but unfortunately, dwelling on it in this situation wouldn't help.
Right now, the enemy too seemed to be hesitating to attack, having just had their Smog Panther numbers slashed all at once.
...In his line of sight, Seto was firing Crystal Breath, but it had no effect on the fog.
"So, what is it?"
With a little pop, Nielson's face sprouted right next to Rei's, by the tree.
Strictly speaking, that wasn't what was actually happening, but given the situation, anyone would think so.
"First, as a premise—the reason you stopped being able to find Smog Panthers is probably because the individual we're fighting now gathered them. I don't know if it's a High-ranking Species or Rare Species, but anyway, the commanding individual collected the Smog Panthers that were in the forest."
Why the commanding individual had done such a thing, unfortunately, Rei didn't know. Perhaps it had learned through some means that the Smog Panthers in the forest were being killed one after another, or perhaps it was the result of coincidences piling up.
At any rate, Rei's theory was that it was precisely because the commanding individual had gathered the other Smog Panthers that Nielson had become unable to find them.
"That's... well, I know it's not really my place to say, but if the Smog Panthers were all gathered together, shouldn't you have been able to find them right away?"
"Hard to say. That would be the normal assumption, but we can't rule out the possibility that the commanding individual used some Skill or something to avoid detection by you."
"What? That kind of incomprehensible stuff is actually possible?"
"The fact that you were finding Smog Panthers was pretty incomprehensible too."
Rei replied to Nielson's words in an exasperated tone.
After all, whenever they headed in the direction Nielson randomly pointed, Smog Panthers were there. Nielson herself had covered it up as though she had solid grounds for indicating those directions, but to Rei, it was obvious that wasn't the case.
In that case, Rei thought it was a bit rich for Nielson alone to take issue with the Smog Panthers' inexplicable behavior in this situation. Though in Nielson's case, the significant benefit of being able to find where the Smog Panthers were made it worth not pressing the issue too deeply.
Nielson was about to fire back a retort, but Rei spoke first.
"Anyway. It's clear you have some kind of power to find Smog Panthers, Nielson. Using that ability, can you try to find where the commanding individual is?"
"Eh? Th... even if you say that..."
For Nielson, Rei's request wasn't something she could simply nod to.
She understood that finding the commanding individual was essential. She understood that completely, but even so, she couldn't just make it happen on the spot in this situation.
Originally, finding the Smog Panthers had come from power received—or perhaps borrowed—from the Chief. Since she wasn't using it intentionally, doing something like immediately finding the individual was undeniably difficult.
Rei understood that too, but given that they couldn't locate the enemy, relying on Nielson was the quickest way to find the commanding individual.
And besides... he had the feeling that if he asked Nielson here, she might somehow manage it.
"The fog around us has thinned because Seto and I killed the Smog Panthers. In other words, the commanding individual's power has clearly weakened. So... shouldn't you be able to manage something too, Nielson?"
Nielson, falling into thought at Rei's words, eventually nodded in agreement.